[KineJapan] Kawashima and metareferences

[Frederick Veith]

The film in the MoMA series was Bakumatsu taiyo-den, or as they called it:
Not Long After Leaving Shinagawa. The Rotterdam publication only gives
detailed credits for four films, which suggests to me that they were the
only ones which screened at the festival: Suzaki Paradise, Bakumatsu
taiyo-den, Onna wa nido umareru, and Shitoyakana kemono. Apart from these
four, the only other film which seems to have screened in the US recently
is the other Daiei film, Gan no tera. But believe it or not, some of
Kawashima's Toho films were shown in the US at the time of their original
release. Aobeka monogatari was even reviewed in the New York Times in 1964
by Bosley Crowther.

Fred.

On Tue, Aug 27, 2013 at 7:01 PM, Roger Macy <macyroger at yahoo.co.uk> wrote:

> **
> Hi, Alo,
> This doesn't exactly put Kawashima in the West very far back, but my notes
> say he figured in a program at New York MoMA in 2005, called 'Early Autumn:
> Masters of Japanese cinema from the NFC, Tokyo'. I can't lay my hands on it
> to say which film.  Galbraith's  'Japanese filmography' is a good place to
> look for Western releases before that.  But there's also the 1991 book
> published by Rotterdam Film Festival, 'KAWASHIMA Yúzó & MORI Issei:
> Japanse meesters van de B-film ~ Japanese Kings of the Bs', which strongly
> suggests to me that they showed some of his films.  I bought my copy at the
> Amsterdam 'Eye' centre last summer.
>
> I don't recall metareferencing in the couple of Kawashima films I've seen,
> but as far as the Marx brothers and Enoken are concerned, they both have a
> history in vaudeville and radio comedy, in both of which the fourth wall is
> only honoured in the breach.  I read Enoken's to-camera squeak, at the
> beginning of *Enoken no seishun suikoden* as referencing his radio
> signature for a large part of his audience that might, up to that point,
> have only known him in that medium.
>
> Roger
>
> ----- Original Message -----
>
> *From:* Michael Raine <raine.michael.j at gmail.com>
> *To:* Japanese Cinema Discussion Forum<kinejapan at lists.service.ohio-state.edu>
> *Sent:* Tuesday, August 27, 2013 10:56 PM
> *Subject:* Re: [KineJapan] Kawashima and metareferences
>
>   Hello Alo,
>
> In terms of direct address, Enoken no seishun suikoden is probably the
> most obvious. I remember a seemingly complicit look in one of the Yotamono
> films (Jogakusei to yotamono?) too...
>
> Michael
>
>
>
> On Tue, Aug 27, 2013 at 5:43 PM, Alo Jõekalda <alojoekalda at gmail.com>wrote:
>
>>  Dear KineJapaners,
>>
>> I've been writing something on early Kawashima Yuzo recently, and have
>> run into a couple of issues that I'm hoping some of you can help to
>> straighten out.
>>
>> First, I'd be interested to know if the metareferencing and overtly
>> self-conscious narration that one begins to see in the Kawashima of late
>> 1940s and Ichikawa of early 1950s was something entirely new in Japan. In
>> Hollywood, breaking the fourth wall has hardly been an issue ever since the
>> Marx Brothers or so, but what about the Japanese pre-war? There was, of
>> course, a number of films that referenced or parodied both foreign and
>> local product -- the Japanese King Kongs, for instance, have been brought
>> up here before, as has been Yamamoto Kikuo's book, which lists a number of
>> citational titles. But does anyone know if any of these or other older
>> films actually addressed the audience in the literal sense?
>>
>> Also, I''ve been wondering about Kawashima's availability overseas, and
>> whether Eureka's recent release of *Bakumatsu taiyo-den* really set a
>> historical precedent. Is anyone aware of any other foreign release of a
>> Kawashima film on any home video format? It's hard to believe it actually
>> took them fifty years. As for international screenings, I believe a few
>> films have been shown at Toronto and FILMeX, and *Taiyo-den* and *Susaki
>> paradaisu* have, of course, been all over the place since last year's
>> Nikkatsu centennial. Anything else of note?
>>
>> Thanks in advance and all the best,
>> Alo
>>
>> _______________________________________________
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>> KineJapan at lists.service.ohio-state.edu
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>>
>>
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